Christmas Potluck

There is a bring some food for sharing dinner tonight! Meet at the school as usual at 6:30 in C209 and then we'll head out to Faith Baptist Church for 7pm.
Please bring hot foods, desserts, drinks, salads and whatever comes to mind.

Frozen

"Freezing" outside the Connexion were about two dozen people. Myself from SCF and others from around Sheridan in various programs.

It was a blast - partly because there were privileges not shared by most homeless people (pizza, candy and hot chocolate).

I slept for about four hours while waking up every 30 minutes throughout - and although I was warm inside the tent before I fell asleep, assuredly it was not so soon after.

That morning I was considerably more happy to have such things as hot running water, indoor heating, shelter and warm winter clothes. It is a strange sensation to all of a sudden appreciate what I have everyday.

Freeze to Feed

Demonstrate your moral disconcertment with Homelessness in the GTA. With Sheridan's Student Union and the student body, we are spending the night (or as much as you are willing) outdoors of Sheridan College in protest against poverty that keeps people on the streets. This is chance show others outside our little club that we care about social justice. It is a chance to experience sympathy and understanding for those without shelter and it's a chance to be community with others for a common purpose.

Bring your tents, sleeping bags and extra sweater for yourself and one to donate. Donations are recommended - whether canned food or monetary or clothes.

The night officially starts at 7pm but we will meet as usual in C209 at 6:30 before joining. There are planned activities and games by the Student Union.

Contact Caitlin for details - awareness.ssuitrc@sheridanc.on.ca

Murder in our College

Jesus Christ provided his students with a principle on murder in the gospel of Matthew. We commit murder when we harbour anger and contempt towards others in a way that pushes them outside our reach of love. In this way we treat those as if they were dead and in essence murder them to ourselves.

How can we, who are learning from Jesus, pinpoint our own actions of murder and reverse the cycle of death and start actively bringing life to those who we neglect and perhaps are neglected by a larger portion of our society?

Luke 10: 25-37 Jesus tells a story about the moral upstanding conservatives who neglect the pain and suffering of a Jewish man, who in this story is laying on the road, inflicted with physical wounds. These men exemplify what it is like not to love their neighbours. However, the Jewish man is rescued, but by a Samaritan (a half-jew, held in contempt by most Jews, who would likely reciprocate that attitude).

The latest

Tonight's discussion explored the irreligious teachings of Jesus from 2000 years ago. Running with this concept we discussed how Christians can be non-religious but yet still fully committed to the claims and person of Jesus. This means putting a relationship before the list of do's and don'ts. This means disregarding denominational barriers, this means looking past the methods and programs that are instituted to help us worship God and focus on God himself.

We finished the night unresolved on some way following Jesus may affect our behaviour, but next's week discussion will dig into a specific teaching of Christ which is now counter-cultural and may require a shift of mentality and radical changes of behaviour. It's time to figure out how living like Jesus will make us different, better and perhaps out of place.

Responding to the End of Religion

About 60-70 Sheridan students came out to listen to Bruxy Cavey's talk about "The END of RELIGION." this past Tuesday night. SCF is happy to have had the priviledge to host an event to listen and discuss the irreligious message of Jesus Christ.

For those who didn't get a chance to come out, or need a recap, Bruxy introduced the idea that the written and accounted message and life of Jesus was counter-institutional and COUNTER-RELIGIOUS. Jesus taught an approach to life with God that didn't involve rules and law to be our guide. It is guided by a love and relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

A video and audio recording was made and can be gotten upon request: it will be ready in December.

Sheridan's Christian group on campus (SCF) will be doing a FOLLOWUP to discuss points raised in Bruxy's talk and his book. Everyone is welcome. Every Tuesday, 6:30pm in C209.

Bruxy will be starting a series of talks called, "THE GOD DEBATE" this Sunday, which will continue over the course of the next five weeks. You can check out this website for details regarding his series- http://www.themeetinghouse.ca -and to check out other series that he mentioned during his talk this Tuesday - "When Darkness Falls" (on the history of the Church) and "The Irreligious Christ." The website will have info on Location, Times and anything else.

Any QUESTIONS can be left here at this blogspot - or emailed to us: scfoncampus@gmail.com

Primer.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
-Mahatma Gandhi

The End of Religion

Bruxy Cavey, the author of THE END OF RELIGION, is speaking at Sheridan this Tuesday, 7pm in J102.

He will be talking about Jesus Christ's role in overturning religion 2000 years ago and how the principles he taught can be used today to change our world perspective and consequently the world we live in.

There will be a chance to ask questions afterwards.

Small Group

Christian Faith and Art will meet as usual today in C209 at 6:30.

The FOLLOWING WEEK there will be guest speaker named Jim Paterson, an artist from Oakville, who'll be talking to us about his own art work and faith. He'll be taking those who want, on a tour of his studios and then dinner afterwards. Should be lots of fun.

Hypocrisy Halloween Dress-up Night

This Tuesday we'll be having a hypocrisy party. Come to SCF with an identity prepared and an outfit that suits it. The game is to figure out who's who.

For example:

Dress up with white hair wig and big white mustach in a white lab coat and pencil. People will probably guess you are Einstein if you speak with a German accent. The fun is that you should add a twist. Einstein, recovering from acoma and is trying to remember his past inventions.

Dress up in yellow and walk around stiffly. You could be a man who believes he's a banana and wants others to peel him.

Anything goes. The sillier you make it, the more fun and challenging it will be. Instructions for the night will be given out as you arrive.

After the game we'll be discussing how Jesus views living in pretence, acting, pretending to be someone you are not. Jesus hated this, let's see if we can get inside his head.

Reading Week Update

There will be no SCF this week, either on Tuesday or Thursday nights. The leads are planning a social event for the weekend which will involve food and either a movie or bowling. One idea being thrown around is to watch "Reign Over Me" in the B wing halls, with a projector and eat pizza.
Keep checking the blog for updates.

Reading Week

This Tuesday will be an informal night of games, snacks and maybe movies. Updates will be posted here and sent to your emails about specifics. Likely we'll meet same time, same place (tuesday, 6:30 in C207).

Small group update: Faith & Art

The SCF sponsored small group still meets Thursday's in C209 at 6:30. The next get together will be after the reading week on Nov. 1st. The group will discuss how you can intergrate your creative art skills with your Church community.

This Thursday we talked about creating original artwork and being confident. We compared the way a child invisions the world and acts without inhibitions to the way we should live as artists. Jesus touched on this in various teachings about being like a child to become part of God's Kingdom. Jesus also taught that he can work through our weaknesses, and when we can't do something it opens up opportunites for Jesus to show his creativity and character through us.

A little interesting quote that came up, which caught my attention was by C.S. Lewis, who in short said, "Don't try to be original, rather try to express truth and you will be original without even noticing."

Weekly Review

This Tuesday we compared the three miracles of Jesus in Luke 5. In every miraculous deed Jesus wanted to attach a meaning about life lived under the God's power and love. When Jesus filled the nets with fish he wanted to teach his disciples that working to get fish out of water would be replaced by working to get people into God's Kingdom. When Jesus healed the man with skin disease he showed his disciples that the outcasts and unclean people would join God's community because Jesus could make them clean. Jesus' third miracle, he showed his disciples that the spirit of a man is more important than his body, because Jesus claimed to forgive the man's wrongdoings and proved it by fixing his body. We concluded that an ACTION or event can be LITERALLY true but also a SYMBOL of something else. Jesus uses physical, visible and literal acts to demonstrate the validity of his claims of authority over the spiritual, invisible and symoblic/metaphysical world.

Is Jesus for real?

This Tuesday, we will be discussing the stories about Jesus in the good news of Luke, specifically Ch 5, verses 1-26. There are three stories where Jesus is told to have done some superhuman things: cause a massive amount of fish to be caught, heal a diseased man from leprosy and restore the function of a man's paralysed legs. Was the author conveying figurative or literal actions of him whom he deemed the "messiah."

We'll kick the night off with a game, and there will be snacks as usual. C207 @ 6:30pm.

Newsflash

The blogspot is now resurfacing from stagnation! SCF meets on Tuesdays now in Room 207 (two doors down from previous meeting room). We begin at 6:30pm and always provide snacks and discussions.

This week we looked at Jesus' first day in ministry; his first day on the job so to speak. We investigated who he talked to, what he did, and how his audience responded, according to Luke 4. As it turns out he wasn't very well recieved by his hometown who tried to kill him. Jesus ruffled a lot of feathers the way he spoke about God's Kingdom, which, to the Jews, was the equivalent of a Jewish Kingdom. He said the Kingdom would made up of people like Romans who already had a vast empire and that God's kingdom would be about freeing humans from disease, demons, and helping those who are neglected. Jesus was fighting the Kingdom of Satan, not the Romans. But as we now know, the Roman Kingdom fell and was replaced by the Church of Jesus Christ.

Tune in to this blogspot to find out what's going on next week, and reading week and how are small groups are going.

If you want to start a SMALL GROUP, leave a comment or email scfoncampus@gmail.com about your idea.

SCF is up and running!

Hi everyone!

SCF is up and running for the new school term! We had our first meeting last Thursday and it was a great turnout especially with such short notice. It was great to see so many new faces and so many friends from last year, and exciting to see new friendships forming already.

So far, we're meeting every Thursday at 6:30 in room C209. If you're new, there'll be signs pointing the way. If anything changes, we'll let you know too.

It's going to be an exciting semester. We've got a boatload of awesome people on leadership this year and aiming to do even more than last year. We recognize that one meeting each week can't be all things to all people, so we're hoping SCF can act as an "umbrella" group to smaller groups that can fit people's needs better. Our big group meetings on Thursdays will focus on a discussion series about Jesus, but we'll have small groups as well that focus on different topics. The first one coming up soon will be about Christianity and the Arts. We also hope to partner with other Church and community groups, and provide volunteer opportunities. We've got a lots more for the future so stay tuned. We'll keep you updated here so check back every so often. Or email us at SCFoncampus@gmail.com with specific questions or ask to be put on the mailing list.

Hope to see you around soon!

scf is beginning its club registration for the fall.

Summer Break

Hey everyone, SCF is officially on break for the summer.

It's been an amazing year and things have turned out well beyond our expectations. We're so thankful to God for everything as He's guided us, corrected us, and blessed us (quite often in spite of our fumbling and bumbling).
Truthfully, it was a lot of hard work and a lot of responsibility but totally worth it and God is faithful. He sees the heart, and does great things, no matter how weak we are. We don't rely on our own strength but we look to God, the source of all good things.

Just wanted to officially congratulate Jasmin on graduating from Sheridan's Bachelor of Arts Illustration program. We wish you all the best as you move on in life but we sure hope you'll come back and visit us too. We're really gonna miss her, and not just because she can bake delicious cookies. :)

Jasmin's been helping out at SCF for many years now including being President last year, booking rooms, speakers, doing posters, leading activities and discussions, emailing updates, planning and pretty much organizing everything. More than that, she was a great friend, a real encourager and fun to hang out with. She also plays a pretty good game of Dutch Blitz. We're sad to see her go but we know she'll find new ways to serve God and she'll always be a part of us.

Last year, we knew this was coming and were a bit concerned about the future. It was hard enough with just the two of us and we both burnt out at times, what would happen after she left? Thankfully, God provides. We're not just very glad, we're ecstatic to announce that many SCFers have stepped up and are volunteering in a number of ways. It is more than we could have asked or imagined.

Thanks to Edwin, Sagan, Bruce, Rachel, Faron, Carla, and Alissa for volunteering! We do have position names and details will follow but at this point what's important is the willingness to serve. We know it's going to be a phenomenal experience to see God work in our lives and the lives of others as we do our best to follow Him. If anyone else is still interested, there's always room for more - especially the musically inclined. :)

Lots of ideas around and many people have put in a lot of work already to prepare for next year. We hope to have a really cool program ready for you when we get back including a more organized big group meeting, fun events, guest speakers, and small groups! We'll keep you posted.

See you all when school starts up in the fall.

Life, and life to the full.

This week's topic was "Does God Matter?". It wasn't a rhetorical question. We looked carefully at the question: What difference does God make in your life? and tried to answer it as genuinely as we could. Thanks to everyone for being so willing to share so personally.

Our Scripture for the study focused mainly on the latter part of John 10:10 where Jesus says "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." What did He mean by "life to the full" and are we taking Jesus up on His offer? It wasn't just the benefits that we looked at but rather the big picture. The "abundant life" or "life to the full" didn't mean that everything would turn up roses but a better life in the sense of being more worthwhile. A life not just quantitatively more, but qualitatively more. Apples and oranges, you know?

Hopefully if I have the time, I will post the discussion sheet we used and summarize some of our general responses (including all those food analogies of fullness). In the meantime, here's a picture of what we do after our meetings. If you have the time, please stick around and join us in a friendly (and sometimes intense) game of Dutch Blitz! It's a vonderful goot game!

Changes for the New Semester

1) Time change! Due to the new schedules for semester two, we've had to switch our times from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Still at 6:30. I know this conflicts somewhat with the grocery bus run for some folks, but to make up for it, we're going to offer our own grocery run... the times will depend on people's schedules.

2) Room change! Residence is turning the lounge we were using into a gym, so we're now in C-209. That's in C-wing, second floor, above the library. It's in something of a hidden hallway, but if you look for the sign that says "A Touch of Esthetics", it's just around the corner. We'll try to post a map soon.

On the minus side, no more couches. On the plus side, no more having to sign in! See you there!